The Swiss HIV Cohort Study (SHCS) is an ongoing multi-center research project dealing with HIV infected adults aged 16years or older. . It was established in 1988. At the end of 1995, a complete reorganization has been implemented, with the following hallmarks : clear separation between infrastructure and research budgets, retribution for the infrastructure according to the performance of each center, implementation of a quality control program, and research by focused projects evaluated by a Scientific board, with relative independence within a defined budget envelop. In 2000, the budget was transferred from the Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH) to the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) and the SHCS grant for the period 2000-2003 was placed under the latter agency.

Moreover, the 2 studies on HIV in pregnancy and HIV infected children ongoing since the late 80's fused and were integrated in the SHCS grant 2000-2003 under the name “Swiss Mother+Child HIV Cohort Study (MoCHiV)”